214 



THE GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



.July. 



o'clock A. M., and continues until three or four 

 p. M., or during the time the drones are absent 

 from the hives, and at no other time. Now, sir, 

 what I want to know is. is this fact known to 

 the scientific world ? I have read many books 

 and papers (but not all) relative to the natural 

 history of the honey bee, yet I have never seen 

 it mentioned. Sometimes we think we have 

 made an important discovery, and we afterwards | 

 learn that some fellow discovered the same 

 thing a hundred or a thousand years ago. 



FREMONTIA. 



BY A COLLECTOR. 



As to the Fremontia ripening its seeds at the 

 highest altitude I mentioned, it does so in all 

 probability; otherwise how does it propagate 

 itself? I never looked for seed there, because I 

 could get it nearer home. 



The Dendromecon rigidum grows near here. 

 The handsomest plants J know are on the plains 

 near the hills, but it also grows pretty high up. 

 The highest altitude I know of its occurring, is 

 between 3,000 and 4,000 feet above the sea ; 

 scarcely high enough for it to be safe for North- 

 erners to try it, but it is credited with growing 

 at Clear Lake, which would give some hopes of 

 its doing well. Southerners, if they care for such 

 things, could raise it. It ripens seed here. It 

 stands transplanting; at least the plant I bought 

 this spring is growing. 



Cowania Mexicana has never been found in 

 California. The "Botany of California" says: 

 " Mountains of the Virgen river, California, Fre- 

 mont (probably in Nevada)." But the Virgen 

 as I well recollect, is in Utah. We have no 

 Virgen river in California, "also in the moun- 

 tains of northern Utah and New Mexico." From 

 its habitat it will most likely prove hardy with 

 you. 



I am glad to see that my article has drawn 

 the attention of at least one. Perhaps the fowls 

 of the air may yet roost in the branches of my 

 Mustard tree plant. 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 



Laws of the Weather. — We have occasion- 

 ally observed that the laws which regulate the 

 weather, are precisely like those which regulate 

 the flow of hot water in a boiler, and there is no 

 more reason why we may not know all about 



one as the other, if we can get at the facts in de- 

 tail, as we can the facts in a boiler which we use 

 for hot water heating. We know that the cur- 

 rent is not caused by the water made light by 

 the heat under the boiler, but because there is a 

 heavier pressure from the colder mass which 

 flows into the boiler, and forces that which has 

 been made lighter out of the way. It is a sim- 

 ple act of gravitation. That which is heaviest 

 goes to the bottom, and the lightest is pushed up 

 to the top. A stone sinks because it is heavier 

 than water; a stick swims because the water is 

 heavier than the stick. Atmospheric currents 

 are caused in the same way. The sun lightens 

 the tropical atmosphere, and the heavier north- 

 ern rushes in to displace it. The sun warms 

 the tropical waters, and the cold Arctic cur- 

 rent rushes in to force it out of the way, 

 and we have a gulf stream flowing north to 

 fill in the chasm formed by the southward flow 

 of the Arctic water. How wonderful are the 

 purposes of nature ! We look on the Arctic ice- 

 fields and deprecate the dreary and awful waste; 

 but without these ice fields we should not have 

 rain or snow or healthful breezes. If we could 

 but study the position of these moving masses of 

 ice, there is no reason why we may not predict 

 the general climate for months ahead. It is 

 just this sort of knowledge Arctic research might 

 bring us. No one cares now about the northern 

 passage, but it is of vast meteorological import- 

 ance to know that the sea can flow either to the 

 right or to the left as it presses down on what 

 we may now call the shores of the great Island 

 which forms the North American Continent. 

 We have yet an immense number of these facts 

 to gain, but when gained meteorology will be- 

 come an exact science. 



Every one who has looked at this matter in 

 this light, welcomes every arctic expedition. 

 When last summer we learned from one of these 

 expeditions that the immense ice sheet was 

 much further westwardly than ever before, it 

 was known that we might expect a very late 

 spring here, and a correspondingly early one on 

 the other side of the gulf stream. Just how it 

 is every one knows. Here before us is a paper 

 from the Isle of Wight, England, dated April 

 22nd, and they talk about peas in bloom, pota- 

 toes "hoed up for the' last time," and "will be 

 ready for market by the first of June." Here in 

 Philadelphia, some eight hundred miles south of 

 the Isle of Wight, we have potatoes scarcely out 

 of the ground, and peas scarcely large enough to 



